Why people use fashion companies' Facebook pages: An empirical investigation

Abstract

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are fundamentally altering the way businesses and consumers behave. Fashion apparel companies such as Ann Taylor and fashion retailers such as Dillard’s build Facebook pages to advertise products, announce special promotions and obtain consumer feedbacks. Because consumers may use fashion companies’ Facebook pages for a variety of utilitarian and hedonic reasons, understanding why consumers visit these Facebook pages can provide helpful information to better meet the companies’ marketing goals. This study examines consumers’ underlying motivation for using fashion companies’ Facebook pages, applying motivation theory to examine the impact of perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment (utilitarian vs. hedonic motivations) on intention to visit Facebook pages. Moreover, the study examines personal factors that are expected to influence consumers’ motivations to use fashion companies’ Facebook pages. Data from 472 survey participants were examined using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings show that both perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness positively influence intention to use fashion companies’ Facebook pages, and the effect of perceived enjoyment is stronger. The study also found that fashion product involvement had a positive influence on perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness of fashion companies’ Facebook pages, whereas fashion innovativeness had no influence on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment.